Niika Quistgard, Ayurvedic practitioner extraordinaire — is back! (She joined me on episode 17 for a great vata-calming episode. If you haven’t heard it, go back and listen to it. It’s a great foundation and complement to this one!)

On this episode Niika explains the Ayurvedic approach to nourishing ojas — thought to be our vital essence — during the winter and the holiday season. When ojas is strong, we feel content, stable, and grounded. When it gets depleted, our immunity goes down the tubes (my parlance, not hers 🙂

We got super-fancy and cross-cultural on this episode, because it turns out that the way to cultivate ojas is very similar to the Danish concept of hygge (think cozy socks, candlelight, and delicious spiced drinks). Niika also shares her approach to asana and pranayama for keep ojas tip top.

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Andrea Ferretti and Jason Crandell are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized vinyasa yoga teacher. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 6. To find out where you can train with Jason live, check out the Schedule page.